Structural analysis of biological macromolecules and lipids by mass spectrometry

3 Structural analysis of biological macromolecules and lipids by mass spectrometry 

Proteins may be analysed using two main approaches by mass spectrometry - the molecular mass may be measured for the whole protein and/or the protein may be broken into smaller peptides, which may be individually analysed, providing insight into the structure of the parent protein. 

2 Gel-based isolation and digestion of a protein for mass spectrometry 

Excised (2) Trypsin Peptide proteins digestion mixture 

In fact, rarely more than 60 per cent of any protein amino-acid sequence is fitted to the databases, therefore peptide mass fingerprinting is remarkably efficient. Should peptide mass fingerprinting prove inadequate to identify a protein unambiguously, then tandem mass spectrometry may be required to further narrow the list of candidate proteins. 

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STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF BIOLOGICAL MACROMOLECULES AND LIPIDS BY MASS SPECTROMETRY 493... 

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